Safe on the Battlefield
by Fellace
Summary: Ishida Takeru, Yagami Hikari-once friends, now enemies. After devestation and destruction, they have forgotten their relationship. Resent blossoms to love-but will the two get the chance to pick up the scattered pieces? AU, Takari.
1. Default Chapter

Safe on the Battlefield  
  
Disclaimer::  
  
Digimon-Toei. This Fanfic-Mine. Everyone happy? ::lawyers grumble and scatter to other fics:: Alright then. ::smug look::  
  
Description::  
  
Two close friends meet for the second time-too bad they don't remember the first! They were a cute couple-unfortunate that they hate each other. They clash too many times for their liking, but resent blossoms into love. When the prospect of the wars threaten their newly found relationship, will fate- and the only living members of their family-tear them away again? **AU fic, Takari**  
  
Notes::  
  
Well, this was a fic to hold off Change of Heart for a few more days… ugh, now I understand the full wrath of Writer's Block.  
  
To Understand the AU Fic::  
  
I changed the plotline a little…okay, a lot.  
  
Well, the timelines of the Digital and Real Worlds were synchronized before the digidestined of 01, so when they came back, the worlds were in chaos because of the digimon that had taken over. They did not find the crests, but the digimon can digivolve into mega… just a note for Hikari's dream.  
  
The digidestined wiped out Devimon, returned to their world with the digimon, and caused peace-but it was a bit too late-their families were dead, killed by evil ones. They formed the gangs in order to survive without adults, rules, and money.  
  
Taichi, Hikari, Sora, and Jyou are all in Tai's gang, and Yamato, Takeru, Mimi, and Izzy were in Yamato's gang. These two gangs were ultimate rivals, and many rules were silently set up between the two, ordering an advance and battles to the end, that is, until someone stops them, or memories do.  
  
~~  
  
Chapter 1::  
  
Destruction  
  
~~  
  
Hikari looked around for her elder brother.  
  
"Tai! TAI!" she screamed out. If anyone else in her oniichan's gang had tried to call him that except for the whole gang-well, he would be dead.  
  
She searched desperately, because she knew every fight might bring her only living relative into the cold clutches of death. It had become a necessity to find Taichi, even if the battle was not yet won-or lost.  
  
A dagger flew at her, and she screamed, shutting her eyes. The blow would come, she would never find Taichi at all, he would be so disappointed in her…  
  
"Lightning Paw!" Kari cringed, and she felt a soft nudging at her shoulder. Expecting a hooded Grim Reaper, she looked down to find her faithful digimon, Gatomon. The striped white cat with now staticky gloves gazed back up at the girl with slanted blue eyes, gazing behind Kari and to her sides.  
  
"Kari, you have to stay out of the way!" her digimon snarled at someone coming with another crudely made dagger. Suddenly, the cat digivolved into an angel-a beacon of feminine hope of Taichi's crew. Kari felt herself being swept up into feathers and a pair of warm arms that reminded her of the Yagami's dead parents… of the nice, cozy nights spent around a fire, not a care until…  
  
"Heaven's Charm!" Angewomon cleared off humans on their path, only enough for stinging wounds-Angewomon still had a conscience, even when protecting the human she was destined to live for.  
  
"TAI!" Kari shrieked, finally collapsing onto the ground, crying. She didn't know where her brother was, where-she held back more sniffles and coughs. The tears made her hot and stifled in her gang's dark red ensemble.  
  
Angewomon knelt by Kari gently. A helmet joined clothed feet on the ground, and Kari failed to meet the same blue eyes she had seen before. The two ignored the war cries and the stench of death that seemingly came from all sides, smothering the tiny burning light inside of the young, internally scarred girl.  
  
"I know he's fine." The beautiful digimon reassured. Another Gatomon like hiss escaped the angel, and the digimon flew with Hikari in her eyes, above the battle.  
  
"That was not the place to discuss this." Angewomon explained to Kari, nudging at an enraged gang member below. The trademark dagger of the gang Tai was fighting held in his grubby hand, was still outstretched. Kari had an empty look in her eyes, melancholy and desperate.  
  
"How?" she said. Angewomon gave her a puzzled gaze, right into the link between them. Kari looked up from her silent reverie.  
  
"How-how do you know that's he's all right?" Kari scanned below them, her throat seemed to swell up. She ran a dry hand over auburn eyes.  
  
"I'm an angel, Kari. You should trust me." Kari choked back another sob, quieting down. The wind started brushing through her hair as she recognized a bloodier part of the field, where all the danger was, where they were needed.  
  
"Oh, no-" a choke.  
  
"What? Did you spot Taichi?" Angewomon said in alarm.  
  
"No, no, but… Seko's down." Seko was practically one of her best friends from B.G., Before Gangs. He had lived across the street to the right. She had known he would go down soon, he was getting very sacrificial, or suicidal, now-his life was not important, as long as he saved another. Kari would miss him terribly.  
  
The stench of death was stronger here. Kari looked down, Angewomon scanning for the elder brother as well.  
  
"There's Sora! You need to help her, please! She's like-" Kari sniffled forcibly, "-like family." True enough, the chestnut haired girl was fighting off a band. Unfortunately, they weren't aware-or ill advised-of the angel in ranks with Tai's group.  
  
Kari felt the dim light inside of her burst into flame once again. Her brother was strong, saving a person in their crew would make him proud.  
  
"Go Angewomon! Show them that messing with Sora, or anybody in oniichan's group, is punishable!" Kari commanded. She smirked internally at a comment that popped up into her head.  
  
*There's a bit of Taichi in all of us.*  
  
Sora ran over to Kari. The older girl wore blue jeans dyed red, coming up with a pretty nasty looking purplish, a long sleeved ruby shirt her late mother had given her underneath a crimson, blood stained tank, and her digimon, Biyomon, wore a long red scarf that wrapped around the chain on her ankle.  
  
Tai had a red scarf-a sort of scarf. It attached to his goggles.  
  
Kari gulped down more threatening sobs. She was a big girl, her brother was leader of one of the two infamous gangs of Japan… if he was alive. Every day was a new battle, a new fight, and more sacrifices. She had to not be a baby-for him.  
  
"Kari, are you okay?" Sora sounded more like the caring, wonderful girl that she was outside of the battlefield.  
  
"Yeah. Where's Tai?" Kari sounded casual, like small talk. How she was feeling didn't matter, the older girl couldn't be weighed down by her pitiful problems. The gang flowed as one, no single person could bring them down when they were sick, the person was just left-  
  
Of course, not if it was Sora, Tai, Jyou, or Kari. Never Kari. The gangs had a sort of understanding with Tai's group--if they attacked when they saw a large orange monster awaiting any interruption, the gang would get no mercy by the beast, or a very anxious angel.  
  
"Oh, I-well, I haven't seen him in a while." Sora was noticeably uncomfortable. The wise Kari seemed undaunted, but she knew the girl too well to think that the digidestine didn't care about her missing brother.  
  
"I'm sure he's fine." Sora added quickly. Kari almost screamed out after counting how many times her digimon, and now Sora, had said that to her that day.  
  
"Oh." Kari said, still looking way too casual. She kept swallowing salty tears, trying not to cry again. A large yawn escaped her. Sora immediately went to work.  
  
"Come, you need to rest." Sora gently said to Kari. Expecting a struggle, the girl was disappointed by no reaction. Maybe the younger sib of the gang leader had lost hope.  
  
"Okay."  
  
"Biyomon," Sora called out. The fighting bird ended a human with a  
  
"Spiral Twister!" and then digivolved.  
  
"Biyomon digivolve to… BIRDRAMON!" as the huge crimson bird appeared, the other gang started to scatter. Unusually, the other gangs had figured this gentle but fierce looking bird giant was a symbol of mass death.  
  
"Come on, Kari." The little harness was strapped onto the backside of Birdramon, and Kari lay down in it. The two close girls started to fly towards the base.  
  
~~  
  
"Hey, you okay now? All rested up?" Sora asked Kari.  
  
"Yeah. Is Tai back yet?" sometimes the leader was gone for more than weeks at a time, for constant fights-somehow all the other smaller gangs had- excuse the pun-ganged up on the two major, larger and more powerful gangs of Ishida and Yagami. They would win one fight, then another would immediately take place…that was just the case sometimes.  
  
"I'm sorry, Kari…" Sora hated to say no, unlike Kari's brutally honest digimon, who was nowhere to be found. Gatomon popped up when needed.  
  
"I need to go find him, then." Kari almost jumped up, her skin tingling at the cold air. Her toes reached the ground, and she felt sticky, foul tasting liquid medicine in her mouth. "I'm not sick, you know." She added.  
  
"Kari, stay here. If he comes back to find you, and you're gone… that won't help anyone." Sora pleaded.  
  
"Then I'll have to get Seko's body. He deserves a proper funeral, don't you agree? Taichi will. When he gets back, of course." The worst thing anyone could say to Kari at the moment was 'He ISN'T coming back.' That would just break her soul, and Sora knew it.  
  
"His body will wait. You need to heal, Kari, and that takes time, and REST." Sora ushered her back into the fluffy, but oh so warm bed.  
  
"His body will NOT wait, and Sora, I'm just like Tai when you get like this." Kari's voice took on an annoyed, Yagami-like edge. Otherwise known as bossy and bitchy. That particular feature made both Yagami Taichi and Ishida Yamato one of the great gang leaders. Unfortunately, both Yagami Hikari and Ishida Takeru had developed the gene.  
  
"Gatomon! I need HELP here." Sora looked up at the sky with a look of defeat. Kari gazed at the door slowly, not purely understanding what was about to happen. Suddenly, an annoyed feline with milk on her whiskers banged into the room. Sora leapt into the air.  
  
"Geez, no need to slam doors. There *are* other patients in here." The 'nurse' in the gang said tartly.  
  
"Well, I *was* drinking my *MILK!*" Gatomon protested. Kari was silently slipping her coat on, getting ready to go.  
  
"Well, your digidestine-" silence enveloped the air. It had been a while since they had thought of the digital world, and when they had defeated Devimon… and came back to find their lives all slaughtered mercilessly-the start of all the fights and wars.  
  
Kari stopped, tears started to fall once again, remembering the rotted bodies all littered, and a corpse of a cat, strangled and bulged… Miko.  
  
"Gatomon, we all need rest." Gatomon nodded, realizing the humans' cheerless and depressing feelings.  
  
"Cat's Eye Hypnotism!" soft pink rays emitted from slit blue eyes, and Kari fell into Sora's outstretched arms, and then, in a second, the girl was sound asleep on the bed.  
  
~~  
  
* "Tai… Tai…" *  
  
  
  
Hikari was running through pitch black, straight into Devimon's arms. She was screaming, Gatomon was strangled and the pre angel's face was distorted into her cat Miko's.  
  
Kari had no protector, nothing to help her…  
  
Until a strange device came to her, called out, and she grabbed it. It shone, and Hikari felt like she was watching a strange movie. There was Tai, and he was glowing orange.  
  
"Courage," he muttered. The image blurred as the orange light overbeared into a soft, mellow red. A girl with a helmet-Sora.  
  
"Love," another longer red glow. Now, it was Izzy… how long it had been since Kari had seen him. She reached out, but an invisible barrier made it seem like she was in a different world.  
  
"Knowledge." His voice was steady and intellectual-just like Izzy. A purple glow then developed into a green, surrounding a girl clad in pink… Mimi…  
  
"Sincerity," green transformed into silver. A tall, navy haired boy, Jyou. She had seen him just yesterday-or was it yesterday?  
  
"Reliability." The silver turned a deep, bright gold. There was another boy, someone she had almost forgotten… Ishida Takeru. He muttered one important word.  
  
"Hope." Then… it turned pinkish, and there she was. She was pale, but… there she was. What would she say? Would it be important, like the Truth, or-or Faith? Faith, however, was like Hope… and Truth only a conviction of Faith.  
  
"Light." She ended up saying. Kari couldn't have been happier, she loved the light…the warmth of goodness. Her body in the movie burst with pink, overflowed.  
  
Light scattered, enterwining with a soft shade of blue, so calming. There was an attractive boy, so foreign yet so familiar to her. Ishida Yamato, her brother's enemy, yet a best friend.  
  
He looked like an angel. Hikari shivered, leaning against the invisible glass.  
  
"Friendship." With that one word uttered, columns of light burst into the air, a bright blue glow surrounding and unifying all of them, orange surrounded by red, red surrounded by purple, then green, silver, gold, pink… the blue flew up and banged into a great sky, the barrier, and it shattered, pieces falling in and they were transported to defeat an evil serpent, puppet, machine, and a dark clown…something had happened to make them all forget this dark time…  
  
The glass disappeared, causing Hikari to fall into great inky blank, just blackness and dark…  
  
…screams…  
  
~~  
  
Kari awoke, sweat covering her, making bangs droop into her eyes. She didn't notice, not then, that she was glowing pink, eerily.  
  
She shook it off, the sweat flying off her like a dog's mane. The light slowly faded, and Kari suddenly remembered Taichi.  
  
Her brother, her faith, her…  
  
Her Courage. The dream rushed back to her, but in scattered pieces, it was hard to remember. But she knew, she was the Light, the brightness in the dark, and that other child…  
  
Ishida Takeru.  
  
The one of Friendship. She smiled, thinking of him.  
  
Dark clown. She remembered the four dark ones that they had to defeat, but she knew they, together, would do it. If everyone survived the wars-she needed to ally them, so they could call upon the power of their-what were those beams of light?  
  
A word scrambled back from memory.  
  
1 Monshou…  
  
Crest?  
  
~~  
  
"Hikari? *Hikari?*" the young girl woke up to the gentle proddings of Sora.  
  
"Oh." Hikari rubbed her eyes, stinging from the morning dew.  
  
"It's sunny." The girl always noticed things like that now-something as trivial to others was an important part of Kari's day… just as much as her older brother. Dust was twinkling like stars in the room, making Hikari sneeze.  
  
"Are you sick again? Let me check your forehead-" Sora started on her case.  
  
"NO. And I WASN'T sick." she was getting on a little forcefully. "Sorry." She said softly.  
  
"I'm worried." She said, the quietness of her tone making the cat at her side sick with anxiety.  
  
"I bet on all nine lives that Taichi is fine! Chill out, enjoy the day, don't worry." Gatomon said cheerfully, raising a paw in a peace sign. Hikari craned her head, glancing at Sora. The red eyed girl nodded her agreement, encouraging the girl to live the morning.  
  
"Okay." Hikari had given up hope.  
  
~~  
  
Hikari walked along a winding path, staring at the blooming flowers in the way. Bright buds of roses and yellow daffodils opened their petals to the sun, and morning glories bowed their heads to the human of light, walking the way.  
  
She was getting paranoid, shaking. She wasn't at all serene or secure, nothing of the sort…  
  
She didn't want to live, or enjoy herself, not until her brother was there.  
  
Nothing mattered. She just needed to find Taichi, to make her feel safe and at home again. She needed her family.  
  
"Hikari! Hikari!" the girl turned to see Gatomon, running and leaping agilely along the path, narrowly missing a slippery frog.  
  
"Hi, Gato." The female cat gaped at her human, trying to twist around the blocks and walls in her eyes. Suddenly the world was trapped out of her soul, including her companion and protector.  
  
"Hikari…" Gatomon approached cautiously. An angry digidestined, that didn't know the extent their powers reached to-well, that wasn't a path a cat with only three lives left should embark on.  
  
"Yes?" even her voice was shielded. The digimon feared that Hikari may get too comfortable like that-another Yamato of the digital world.  
  
"Well… Hikari, Taichi is fine. I promise you. With all my lives, my heart, and my own soul-I swear to you on-on Wizardmon's grave!" Gatomon hadn't meant for the words to slip out, but now, they were indeed in the open. Hikari seemed a little less troubled-that is, carefully phrased…  
  
One barricade down, about twenty more to go.  
  
Obviously her digidestined was feeling insecure without that anchor of a big brother there… Gatomon hissed. She just needed to find him, then.  
  
~~  
  
"Where's Gato, Sora? I've been trying to find her all day." The dullness but heartbreaking desperation in Kari's voice made Sora buckle onto her knees internally.  
  
"She's probably hunting micemon somewhere." Sora made an 'oops' gesture, and Kari half heartedly giggled.  
  
"What happened to you?" Sora accidentally said aloud.  
  
"I just got abandoned by my brother and digimon, that's all." Kari said soulessly, and wandered back to the path.  
  
No human noticed the tiny droplets of water sliding down her pale face.  
  
~~  
  
Gatomon hated water. She hated tears, which pretty much had water and salt- ugh. Especially when those tears were from Hikari.  
  
Taichi… Gatomon clenched her paw as much as she could without breaking a necessary bone. He had made Hikari cry, he had made Gatomon herself need to protect her a lot more than she used to.  
  
//Where are you, Taichi?// the feline sighed, staring up at the night sky's full moon. She felt an insane urge to howl, and practically scratched her ear off to kill that awful itch.  
  
~~  
  
Hikari finally wandered into the forests, searching for Gatomon. Everything seemed so barren and isolated-so secure and safe. She heard rustling, but immediately dismissed it as a trick her paranoid mind was playing.  
  
"Who are you?" the steady tone of her voice made Hikari calm slightly.  
  
"Oh, I'm nobody. And are you a nobody too?" she recited. She wasn't sure how, exactly, that it went, but that's okay. Women's anonymity, vice versa, feelings of desperation and desolation. Wonderfully nice things like that.  
  
Ahh, life was sweet.  
  
And Hikari was feeling incredibly demented and sarcastic.  
  
"I'm desperately alone here." She stated softly.  
  
"Not as much as you think." Hikari whirled around, and saw a blonde boy, standing there. He had a smirk on his face, and his blue eyes seemed to stare into her own.  
  
*Oh god…* Hikari thought. He just remained, undaunted, by the girl's reaction.  
  
*I really hate him.*  
  
~  
  
Le Fin  
  
Owari  
  
The End  
  
Well, what are you waiting for, review! Critisim is appreciated, this fic wasn't what you were expecting and whatever… yes, you probably know who the Dark Clown and others are… if not, find out later, in the final chapters of the fic. I surprised myself, I wrote seven pages in one sitting. ::sigh:: Well, I'll see if I add any more anytime soon. Oh, wow, I did. Two pages, whoo hoo.  
  
^-^  
  
  
  
~*~  
  
Notes:: Liked the turnout ::COUGH:: well, I'll try hard to get the next chapter out soon enough. Peace. Review. Deep. 


	2. Lifestyle

Notes:: 

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Hyper_shark - of course TK smirks! :-) 

To all that were confused- 

In this AU, there is one major change. While the digidestined fought their opponents in the Digital World, the same amount of time passed in the real one. Evil digimon slipped into the real world while the digidestined struggled with Devimon and Etemon, but after many battles the digidestined came back to the real world. 

The evil digimon that found a way out of the digital world destroyed many lives and homes in Odaiba with no one to protect it. The digidestined returned to this destruction, and fought off the evil digimon, but they had been gone too long, and most of the damage was irreversable.

Taichi and Yamato, feeling guilty, made two major groups. Their purpose was an effort to help the younger, orphaned kids survive and keep them safe, but some of the kids in the two groups started wars between them. 

Chapter 2:: Lifestyle

~

Takeru stared right into the wild eyes of the girl. He wondered what in the world he could do to make her believe…

That he was crazy. A slight grin spread across his features, his eyes dancing. He liked that idea very much--the afternoon had turned out to be very boring, and this could be the turning point. He didn't, however, want her to run, screaming. He finally found something that would freak her out…

He started to clap, tilting his head slightly to see her reaction. 

~

He was a madman. Hikari was ready to whip out her digimon, but then she realized Gatomon would not come to her side… 

*The cat abandons the girl, remember, Hikari??* these thoughts were dashing through her mind at incredible speeds. 

The stranger was looking deeply into her eyes. Hikari was, ironically, wondering if her hair was okay. 

He started to clap. Slowly, methodically, a small bit of fire in his amused eyes.

*Huh?* She looked at him, a resentment but passion burning in her hereditary chocolate eyes. 

He was clapping, so she just…

Her back bent. She had bowed.

*So now what?* 

~

Takeru was dizzy. He was so happy to find some amount of amusement in this girl-maybe she could become a part of Yamato's gang?… she seemed to be alone… 

She came up from her distinct bow, and her eyes sparkled, challenging him to top that. Takeru wanted to make her shocked and, possibly, resent him more. 

…

Yet he wanted her to *like* him. 

Why?

She was a really horrible person, actually, dirty and bedraggled. But something in her eyes… about them…

She was starting to get impatient. He could tell. The slight fidgeting, her mouth pressed into a wary, thin half smile. 

The girl turned, her brown hair swinging. Takeru's blue eyes widened. He didn't want her to leave yet!

He searched his mind for something, something to make her want to stay and talk to him. He thought of Yamato, and Gabumon-Gabumon…

"Bark." 

~

Hikari needed to find Gatomon and Taichi. She couldn't just stay here with that silent stranger. He seemed to be in the Digital World, far, far away. She was a little angry, that he thought to be so superior that he didn't notice her existence. 

So, she started to leave. She wasn't expecting a response, actually, but, there it was. 

"Bark." Her mouth curved into a slight smile as the stranger, satisfied, almost turned to leave, the roles reversed. How dare he turn his back on a Yagami, especially since *she* was going to leave *him* first!

"Meow." She regretted the word immediately as it left her lips. That simple sound reminded her too much of Gatomon-and Miko. But she needed to keep him here, she…

She enjoyed the company. With that thought, Hikari blushed as the stranger turned back to her. His deeply tinted blue eyes eerily reminded her of…

Something. SomeONE. Hikari heard a distant 'whoosh' in the distance, but now, she didn't care. 

~

Takeru was ready to do anything. 

"Meow."  

Fine, so… he hated her. That was clear. But that's okay, this insane urge to keep her there was just an excuse to release his insulting rage that had built during the past months.

Or was it? He got ready for a reponse, dreamily imagining their serenading calls of animal sounds. 

His sensitive ears picked up a strange sound.

"_Whoosh._" and he instinctively looked around him. He turned back, right, left, in front, and finally checked up. Takeru almost fell down in surprise. There was Angemon, in his regal might. 

He didn't want the stranger to see, she might be afraid and run off. Not every day you get to see a digital monster. 

The blonde boy made a sign for Angemon to leave, and he looked at the girl once more. 

"I'll see you again." He said. It almost sounded like a promise.

Then he ran off.

~

Hikari looked at the boy. He was being strange, he had just stared around paranoidly, causing Hikari to instantly become tense and ready to leap, like an animal. Then he looked up, and his face become surprised. Then he made a weird motion with his hands, and he looked at her again. 

She wondered briefly if she was supposed to do something now.

"I'll see you again." He promised. She believed him… then he ran. An psychotic desire to follow him and throw herself into his arms made Hikari boldly step forward, then back. She shook her head and then started back towards base, remembering the weird blonde that she had met. 

~

Gatomon watched through the camouflage of tree leaves. 

"I don't like him." She hissed, watching his self assured smirk and aloof footing. But then the feline digimon watched the two interact, and then spotted something in Hikari's face that she had never seen before. 

Weird. She would have to ask Sora about it. 

Her instincts then told her that her holy angel partner was nearby. She looked up and saw Angemon, and then the boy… 

It clicked. 

He was a digidestined, too! A weird, clockwise digidestined, however… he was so weird. 

He mumbled something to Hikari, which almost made Gatomon want to fly down and rip out his vocal chords by the way her partner looked, but stopped when Hikari looked reassured. 

He was special, this digidestined, wasn't he? To Gatomon's partner, anyway. 

Then Takeru walked away and jumped onto Angemon's back. Gatomon narrowed her eyes into slits, and then stalked away to find Taichi once again. She had resumed her original mission. 

Would it be a complication if she followed this digidestined, too?

~

Hikari found Sora helping the others. 

"Where did you go?" she asked strictly, but Hikari knew better. Sora had been worried. They *had* lost Taichi…

Her shoulders quaked, remembering the way her brother had looked out for her. 

*Stop thinking that way, Hikari! Keep faith, hope!* the better half of her cried out. 

"Hikari? Are you okay?" Sora asked gently, a slight uneasy note in her voice. 

"Yeah. Of course, Sora!" Hikari shook off the soft, nimble hand of the older girl. 

"Have you found Gatomon yet?" Sora ignored her question, mostly because the answer was no, but asked one herself. 

"Where did you go?" she repeated. Hikari still did not answer. 

"Somewhere." Sora almost snorted in spite of herself at this reponse. Nice and general. Sounded like Hikari was doing something she wasn't supposed to. 

"Hmm." Sora said, gazing at the sky. 

"Nice weather," Hikari commented, and gazed at the ground. 

*I wonder if I really *will* meet you again?* she thought sadly, remembering the boy. If even she hated him, of course… of course. 

… maybe he would join Taichi's group. 

~

Gatomon saw where the boy had gone. She gasped. 

'Oh no.' she almost shrieked. The feline needed to report this to Hikari. 

That boy *was* special. 

Not in the good way, either. 

~

Hikari drew a rough sketch of the boy. He had not met her, not in weeks. Dart after dart joined their mates on his nose, eyes, lips, and everywhere else. 

"Ouchhh." She said as a dart intentionally joined two others between his legs. 

"What are you doing?" Sora asked. The girl's eyes widened as she ran over to the sketch on the ruffled couch and smiled innocently. 

"We scrouged a lot for that couch. Don't destroy it, please?" Sora said, ignoring the torn up pieces of paper strewn under the cushions. 

"Uh huh." Hikari said, swallowing the last of his face and blond locks. Too bad that she had to eat it, of course, she had spent so much time on this drawing. The way his blue eyes glinted in the blonde beauty of his hair…  

"Really, Hikari, I thought you had better taste." Sora said, shaking her head as she found another large piece of paper that Hikari couldn't digest. 

"I *do* have a--why am I defending myself?" Kari shook her own head and walked out onto her favorite place now, a path far, far away from her troubles, and her own home. Wind torn and gray, old benches scattered around its circling edges, was perfect to think. 

Of course, she never thought *he* would be there. She stopped dead at the boy, who did the same. He looked at her. 

"Well, well." 

~

Takeru's heart almost skipped a beat. There she was, the girl that had, in his opinion, abandoned him. 

"Well, well." Baka Ishida! He cursed himself. What an idiotic thing to say, and so--so frostily. 

"Why… hello there." She countered right back. Uncomfortable silence drifted between them. 

*So much for the barnyard serenades.* Takeru thought mentally, laughing at his stupidity.  

"We didn't have a chance to, to introduce each other, now, did we?" Takeru carried on the conversation. He sucked in his breath. What beautiful name could match her?

*What am I _THINKING_?*

~

"I'm…" Hikari hesitated. Should she give him her real name?

*I trust him. I think.* 

"Hikari." She said finally. 

~

Takeru smiled. 

"What a beautiful name." He was unable to stop smiling. What a gooey, un-Takeru-like mush Hikari was making him turn into. 

_Light. It means light._

How fitting.

"And you are?" Hikari touched his arm, and he felt jolts, immediately answering. 

"Takeru," there was silence, and he saw Hikari smiling, just as mucked up as he was. 

Ahhh, life was good. 

The scent of flowers spiced up the air, and Takeru was ready to tiptoe through the tulips with Hikari. 

Pause. 

Hikari… where had he heard that name before? 

… 

Hmm… 

"What's your last name?" Takeru asked her, prying instantly due to his curiousity. 

"Yagami. And-" Takeru froze. 

Not at the last name. No, he barely heard the name. 

He was concentrating more on the huge blast that was tearing through the clearing.

*

Well, I found this chapter while rummaging through my PC. 

I don't really have motivation to finish this fic, because I have a new pet project that I'm extremely devoted to… I do, however, like this fic.

I'm not really sure if I should go on with it… it's been a very long time since I updated. o.O

 What do you think? Review an answer, please. Thanks.


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